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David Suzuki: The Autobiography by [David Suzuki]

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David T. Suzuki

David Suzuki: The Autobiography Kindle Edition

by David Suzuki (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

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This is the story of one man's passion for the planet. A passion that for several decades he has brought to the world through his research, his writings, his broadcasting and above all through his life and the way he lives it.

One of the first and strongest influences on David Suzuki was the racism he encountered when he and his family were detained in an internment camp in Canada during World War II. His early experiences as an outsider informed his understanding and empathy with minority groups, and particularly with first nation and indigenous people around the world.

As David Suzuki details his teenage years in Canada, his college and post-graduate experiences in the US and his career as a geneticist, we trace his developing interest in the environment and its myriad constituent parts. David's environmental message became synonymous with the long-running TV series The Nature of Things, which he has hosted for over thirty years.

David writes compellingly of the environmental crises, challenges and opportunities he has seen throughout the world in his travels as writer and broadcaster. Several chapters of the book are devoted to his work to help save the way of life of tribes in the Amazon, and with that the vital ecosystem of the Amazon basin. His meeting and his friendship with Kaiapo chief Paiakan makes compelling reading, as do his numerous meetings with world leaders from Nelson Mandela to the Dalai Lama.

In 2006 David Suzuki celebrates his seventieth birthday, but with no signs of slowing down. His life can fairly be termed a work in progress.

Print length

416 pages
Language

English
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On Kindle Scribe
Publisher

Allen & Unwin
Publication date

Nov. 29 2010
File size

2862 KB
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Review

David Suzuki’s decision to run for high school president (he won, of course) offers a suggestive reflection on the two very different perspectives which have defined his life. For the endlessly successful academic, TV presenter, and environmental activist, triumph in a school council race at London Central Collegiate Institute seems natural if not inevitable. How could he possibly have lost? That would have been newsworthy. But the teenager who campaigned could not, of course, gather support from future accomplishments. And as he tells the story, the contest reflects a very different perspective which is nonetheless central to his later achievements. One of very few Japanese-Canadians in a homogenous student body whose quiet but entrenched racism was fueled by war-time acrimony, alienated still further by his family’s poverty and (worst of all!) by his own excellent grades and science-nerd instincts, Suzuki won by rallying “the Outies” (everyone but the “football players, cheerleaders, basketball players”), convincing them of their collective strength as a silent majority.
Suzuki’s autobiography pulls no punches in his account of the racism faced by his family and other Japanese immigrants in terms of “laws [which] were passed to bar them from voting, purchasing land, and enrolling in university,” and then even more oppressively during World War II (Suzuki’s family was interred in the Slocan City camp). But the “psychic burden” of his growing alienation from “Canadian white society” was complicated by the impact of internal racism in the camps between the Nisei majority (second generation immigrants still fluent in Japanese) and third-generation Sansei (including Suzuki) who, speaking only English, were not Japanese enough.
Rather than lapsing into self-pity, Suzuki emphasises the ways these memories helped to nurture a sense of compassion for other victims of prejudice, and most of all, a spirit of activist determination. The teenager who became school president by rallying the Outies remains alive and well, galvanising popular support in struggles against a range of entrenched power structures and unreflecting bigotry. The section on his childhood memories closes with an apt metaphor from his years working as a framer for his uncles’ construction business: in the end, the frame has been rendered invisible, “covered with shingles, siding, plaster, trim, and paint,” but it remains the structure which holds the house together, in the same ways that Suzuki’s early experiences of alienation “remained a fundamental part of who I am, all my life, despite the acquired veneer of adult maturity.”
The bulk of the memoir deals with the central aspects of Suzuki’s adult years: his evolving family life, his success as a young geneticist at UBC and as an odd kind of media star (suspicious of TV as a medium and of the pernicious effects of our celebrity culture, though his fans include Prince Charles and the Dali Lama), and his work as a tireless and much-loved activist-the top-ranked living individual in the recent Great Canadian contest.
No one can accuse Suzuki of false modesty, but he is far happier sharing the praise, lauding the achievements of the dedicated individuals with whom he has worked in various causes (including his wife Tara and their two daughters), and emphasising the profound lessons that he has learned from others. It makes for a compelling read. Suzuki offers plenty of the requisite anecdotes from his television career-the director’s cuts, bloopers, and high risk stunts-but his narrative gains momentum during his recollection of the issues that have obviously mattered to him most: the struggle in the mid-1970s to protect Haida Gwaii (the Queen Charlotte Islands) and then the Stein Valley from clear-cut logging. Both fights helped to develop Suzuki as a politically sophisticated and media-savvy activist, but what makes these memories particularly worthwhile is Suzuki’s insistence on his role, not as a charismatic leader but as a student: as someone who had an enormous amount to learn from the traditional values and ecologically rooted identity of Aboriginal communities, about which, he admits, he knew far too little. Suzuki’s environmental priorities have been profoundly shaped by his appreciation of the Haida’s sense of continuity with the environment of which they are a part, not as something out there and worth saving, but literally, as an extension of ourselves.
A long section at the core of the book charts the expansion of this activist commitment and philosophical awareness from a Canadian to a global context. Filming an episode of The Nature of Things on the Amazon rain forests of Brazil, Suzuki was befriended by Paiakan, a Kaiapo native who had fought against the corruption of his community’s traditional way of life. Suzuki, Paiakan, and their families became friends and allies in struggles against the clear cutting of the rain forests, destructive mining operations, and then the Brazilian government’s and World Bank’s decision to embark on mega-dams that would flood huge tracts of tribal lands. Their work together reads as part travel fantasy, part cloak-and-dagger adventure story, but most of all, a stirring account of the triumph of the will in a campaign that became part of our age’s global consciousness.
The final section of the book charts the emergence of the David Suzuki Foundation (he resisted the name but others insisted on it as a strategic necessity), which strives to offer positive solutions instead of being “anti-everything” as one businessman complained; his growing focus on climate change (which he graciously recounts in the now familiar terms of lessons he has learned from other more far-sighted people) as the greatest current threat; and his decision to abandon his own research because of the scientific community’s reckless disregard for the ethical consequences of recent developments in genetics. So many achievements, causes, and adventures inevitably give the book a very “public” focus, but this is balanced at almost every point by Suzuki’s loving attention to the efforts of his wife and daughters as determined activists and scholars in their own right, and as the community within which these issues gain their ultimate significance for him.
The autobiography is written from the self-conscious perspective of an “elder” who is edging into retirement, contemplating his own mortality as he revels in the company of his grandchildren. But it would be missing the point to read this as a book about the past. Suzuki’s memoir is a retrospective by someone who is still profoundly engaged with some of the most fundamental issues of our day. News of the B.C. government’s recent decision to resume logging in Clayoquot Sound underscores just how high the stakes in these struggles are. It will also bear witness to Suzuki’s ongoing activist energy as Gordon Campbell will no doubt be hearing from the David Suzuki Foundation and its leader, who will be eager to bind the province to its commitment to pursuing new logging in the sustainable ways for which environmental groups associated with Suzuki had advocated. Few books could be more timely.
Paul Keen (Books in Canada)
-- Books in Canada --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

About the Author

DAVID SUZUKI is an acclaimed geneticist and environmentalist, the host of The Nature of Things, the founder and chair of the David Suzuki Foundation, and the author of more than forty books, including The Sacred Balance, Tree, and Good News for a Change. He lives in Vancouver, British Columbia. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B004E8M6GK
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Allen & Unwin (Nov. 29 2010)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 2862 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 416 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #334,023 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #12,430 in Biographies & Memoirs (Kindle Store)
- #42,656 in Biographies & Memoirs (Books)

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23 global ratings

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Top reviews from Canada

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smallebean

Excellent book

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on January 23, 2023

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Still reading it but it is a fascinating book. Strongly recommend it.

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CW-Wilk

it came in awesome condition! recommend for sure

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on October 28, 2017

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dave Suzuki is a Canadian that im proud of in alota ways!- has taught so many of us so many things! in a way kind of stands for what we believe in Canada- knowledge, understanding, resilience, and a big concern for the well being of everybody/everything. This book will hopefully tell the story of david, or at least some of it! this book is a gift to but I hope to read it someday. it came in awesome condition! recommend for sure!

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on March 30, 2017

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What a man. A real Canadian treasure.

One person found this helpful

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PAUL BENSON

Five Stars

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on December 2, 2017

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An excellent read

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on March 21, 2015

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I gave it to a friend.

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STEPHEN PLETKO

A look into the extraordinary life of one of the most passionate and visionary people on the planet

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on November 17, 2007

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"Why would anyone else be interested in my life? I know people like to delve into the hidden parts of the lives of people who have acquired some notoriety, hoping to find juicy bits of gossip, signs of weakness or faults that bring the subjects down off pedestals, or simply to expand on what one knows about a public figure. It's not my intension to satisfy that curiosity. Instead, as an "elder," I hope my reflection on one life may stir the reader to consider those thoughts in relation to his or her own life."

The above is found in the last paragraph of the preface of this book by geneticist and environmentalist, the TV host of the acclaimed long-running program "The Nature of Things with David Suzuki," the founder and chair of the David Suzuki Foundation, and the author of more than forty books, David Suzuki (born 1936).

Suzuki explains the contents of his candid and honest book:

"This...is a story I have created by selectively dredging up bits and pieces from the detritus of seventy years of life. The first five chapters skim over the first fifty years...and the rest of the book describes events since then."

More specifically, the first five chapters begin with his childhood life in "racist British Columbia" in Canada, then goes on to his education in the U.S., his early career as a research geneticist, and his "new career" in radio then television. As the book proceeds, we see his transformation into environmental warrior where he recounts stories of his activism in British Columbia and eventually the Amazon, telling us of the plight of the indigenous peoples in this environmentally sensitive region.

In the second half of his book, he tells of his journeys to Australia. Suzuki fell "head over heels" for this country and says that "We [his second wife and him] have never regretted remaining in Canada, but we do feel privileged to be able to return to Australia again and again." He goes on to explain the establishment of the foundation named after him and describes some of its successes to date. Then he proceeds to tell us of his experiences at the Earth summit of 1992 and the world climate change conference held in Kyoto, Japan in 1997.

The last three chapters are especially interesting where Suzuki gives us his ruminations on science and technology, the cult of celebrity, and old age respectively.

Throughout the book, two things are apparent: Suzuki cares deeply for his family and his passion for environment. With regards to the latter, I thought I know a lot about what's happening to the environment, but I learned much more from reading this book. I think I learned so much because of Suzuki's first-hand observations that he eloquently details and his explanations of what's going on are easy to understand. (My assertion here is actually incredible when you think about it because this book is actually an autobiography and not an environmental science book.)

This autobiography is chatty, intimate, full of interesting stories, and remarkably honest. Suzuki's decency and sincerity shines through practically every sentence of his book.

Finally, the book is peppered with photographs. Even though he sees the "cult of celebrity" as "frightening," you'll see Suzuki in photographs with Canadian and U.S. celebrities such as Gordon Lightfoot, John Denver, Tom Cruise, and Jane Fonda. My favorite photo is the very last one that has him posing naked with only a fig leaf on. The caption reads:

"The notorious fig leaf shot for the show "Phallacies" for [his TV show] "The Nature of Things with David Suzuki."

In conclusion, this is an elegant account of the life of a man who evolved from an academic geneticist into a T.V. and radio personality, first popular in Canada, then the world!!

(first published 2006; preface; 18 chapters; main narrative 400 pages; index; photo credits)

<<Stephen Pletko, London, Ontario, Canada>>

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11 people found this helpful

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David Sabine

Important man, excellent biography

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on January 2, 2012

"The Nature of Things" has been on CBC as long as I can remember and I've loved its stories and videography throughout my life. (I was born in 74.) David Suzuki has extended great effort to help humanity truly grow into our opposable thumbs. What I mean is that I believe Mr. Suzuki is driven by an earnest desire to see people grow smarter and more caring -- of each other and of Earth. The terrible ways we treat Earth, for example, represent unfortunate truths about our current collective state of mind. With nurturing and the right information, surely we can evolve further as a species and become better stewards of our home and our communities.

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on August 7, 2007

Well worth the read. May this book be a good addition to any readers collection, be you an environmental activist, gradeschool student, or fan alike.

3 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Arnold Krupat

A Self-Important Force for Good

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 30, 2013

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Suzuki is an Asian-Canadian geneticist, environmentalist, and television personality. His 1991 "Declaration of Interdependence" has attracted considerable attention in conveying the message that we are all responsible to and dependent upon one another and as well to all life on this planet. It's an important message and one that bears repeating and re-enforcing. His manner, however, in this autobiography, tends toward sentimentality and self-importance. It's a long slog. Like a macrobiotic diet, it's good for you but not much fun.

David Kiebert

Spiritual scientist

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 4, 2011

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David Suzuki has hosted some very fine "Nature of Things" tv shows on PBS. I have a dvd copy of one of his shows on "the Mystery of Mind." Suzuki combines the intelligence and dispassion of a good ecologist with an open-mindedness worthy of a philosophical journalist. His stories about his family -- especially his father and his environmentally active daughters -- are very heart-warming. He presents a scientifically valid yet spiritual view of the world in which we live.

3 people found this helpful

Charles S. Fisher

great man

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 14, 2018

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his experience in the camps as a kids are very interesting

BenH

A great story!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 28, 2012

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Well told, in excellent style, with good insights into nature and environmental politics.

Kept me reading in the middle of the night.

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David Suzuki: The Autobiography Kindle Edition

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David T. Suzuki

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